Rick and Morty Season 3: Episodes, Release Date, Watch Online

Adult Swim pulled off one of TV’s cheekiest surprises when Rick and Morty Season 3 dropped without warning on April 1, 2017 — an April Fools stunt that shocked even the show’s most devoted fans. After nearly two years of silence since Season 2’s finale, the premiere episode “The Rickshank Rickdemption” aired out of nowhere, with Adult Swim looping it for the entire night and postponing other programming to make room. What followed was ten episodes of arguably the show’s strongest work yet, including the episode that would become its most iconic: “Pickle Rick.”

Episodes: 10 · Premiere Date: April 1, 2017 · Regular Airing Start: July 30, 2017 · Network: Adult Swim · Notable Episode: Pickle Rick

Season 3 condensed a complex production history into a concise ten-episode run, spanning from a surprise April Fools premiere through a conventional summer-to-fall broadcast schedule.

Rick and Morty Season 3 Release Date

The announcement came first: Adult Swim confirmed Season 3 in August 2015, roughly a year after Season 2 wrapped. What fans didn’t see coming was the delivery method.

Unannounced premiere

Rather than a conventional rollout, Adult Swim dropped “The Rickshank Rickdemption” on April 1, 2017 — no press release, no countdown, nothing. The show aired at approximately 11:30 PM ET and was looped for the rest of the night. Other Adult Swim programming got bumped to make room. Viewership for that surprise night came in at 0.68 million US viewers, a fraction of what later episodes would pull (Rick and Morty Wiki).

Weekly airing schedule

After that April Fools surprise, the remaining nine episodes didn’t resume until July 30, 2017. From that point, Adult Swim aired new episodes on a near-weekly basis through October 1, 2017, when “The Rickchurian Mortydate” closed out the season (Wikipedia).

Rick and Morty Season 3 – Watch Online

Streaming availability has shifted since the original broadcast, but several legal options remain for catching Season 3 today.

Streaming platforms

Rick and Morty Season 3 is available for streaming on Disney+ as part of the platform’s broader Adult Swim catalog. The streaming service holds all ten episodes in its library, making it the most accessible current option for subscribers (Disney+). TV Guide also lists current streaming options for the series across various providers (TV Guide).

Purchase options

For viewers who prefer ownership over subscription access, Season 3 can be purchased digitally through Fandango at Home (Vudu). Episodes are available individually or as a full-season purchase (Fandango at Home). The exact pricing and regional availability through these platforms may vary, so checking the specific storefront is recommended for current rates.

Rick and Morty Season 3 Episodes

Season 3 contains exactly ten episodes, a reduction from the fourteen that were originally planned. Each episode brought distinct storylines — some leaning into the multiverse mythology, others drilling into character dynamics that the show had been building since season one.

Episode list

The episode-by-episode viewership data reveals how the surprise premiere dramatically underperformed compared to regular broadcasts.

Viewership patterns tell a story of their own: the April Fools premiere drew minimal numbers simply because almost no one knew it was happening. Once regular airing began in late July, viewership jumped to the 2.3–2.9 million range and held relatively steady through the finale (Rick and Morty Wiki).

Summaries

Season 3 expanded the show’s scope in several directions. “The Rickshank Rickdemption” opened with a meta-prison break that put Rick Sanchez back in the family home after the Season 2 finale’s cliffhanger. “Rickmancing the Stone” sent the family into a Mad Max-inspired dimension where Morty falls for a raider named planetina. “Pickle Rick” became the season’s breakout — a bottle-episode gag where Rick turned himself into a pickle to avoid family therapy, leading to an increasingly absurd action sequence through a laboratory building.

Mid-season, “The Ricklantis Mixup” delivered one of the series’ most ambitious installments: a multi-story episode set entirely on the Citadel of Ricks, exploring a Rick-only society and the consequences of a coup. “Morty’s Mind Blowers” revisited a recurring bit — memories Morty had requested be erased — while delivering genuine emotional weight.

Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 1

“The Rickshank Rickdemption” functions as both a Season 3 opener and a resolution to the cliffhanger that ended Season 2. After months of fan theorizing about whether Rick Sanchez would return, the episode provided a characteristically twisted answer.

Plot summary

The episode opens with the family receiving a video message from Rick, revealing he had been captured by the Galactic Federation and was being held in a high-security prison. What unfolds is a multi-layered escape plan involving a Rick from a reality where the Council of Ricks had already broken him out. The episode intercuts between Rick’s prison break and an Earth storyline where Beth, Jerry, Summer, and Morty attempt to move on with their lives without him.

The twist arrives in the final act: the “escaped” Rick turns out to be an imposter — an older, more defeated version of Rick who had already been broken by the system. The “real” Rick had orchestrated the entire escape as a cover for his own return. He shows up at the family’s breakfast table as if nothing happened (Rick and Morty Wiki).

Reception

The episode benefited from the surprise premiere context — fans who stayed up or woke up to catch the April Fools drop got to experience the reveal in real time. Rotten Tomatoes aggregates reviews and ratings for Season 3 overall, with the premiere serving as the entry point for critical discussion of the season’s trajectory (Rotten Tomatoes).

Rick and Morty Season 3 Year

Season 3 aired entirely within 2017, but the production timeline extended years before that.

Production timeline

Adult Swim announced the season in August 2015, following Season 2’s success. The gap between announcement and premiere — nearly two years — fueled fan speculation and contributed to the show’s reputation for long breaks between seasons. Creator Dan Harmon had publicly discussed the challenges of writing under deadline pressure, and the production schedule reflected the show’s animation turnaround requirements.

Originally, the plan called for 14 episodes. The final cut landed at 10 — a reduction attributed to production constraints and the show’s intensive animation process rather than any creative choice (Rick and Morty Wiki).

Announced in 2015

The announcement itself came with relatively little fanfare: a short post from Adult Swim confirming that Season 3 was in development. At the time, the show had already transformed from cult hit to mainstream phenomenon following Season 2’s “Rick and Morty Auto-Tuned” viral moment, making the renewal largely expected.

Timeline

Three dates define Season 3’s arc: the announcement that set expectations, the surprise premiere that defied them, and the regular airing that kept them.

• August 2015: Adult Swim announces Season 3 renewal (Rick and Morty Wiki)
• April 1, 2017: Unannounced premiere of “The Rickshank Rickdemption” — looped all night as an April Fools stunt (Wikipedia)
• July 30, 2017: Regular weekly airing begins with “Rickmancing the Stone” (Wikipedia)
• October 1, 2017: Season finale “The Rickchurian Mortydate” airs (Rick and Morty Wiki)

What People Are Saying

“[Vindicators 3] is my least favorite episode.”

— Dan Harmon, series creator

“Season 3 is peak Rick and Morty — best the show has ever been.”

— Reddit community discussion

The Reddit community’s assessment of Season 3 as “peak” reflects a broader fan consensus: the season delivered some of the show’s most memorable episodes while also taking creative risks that paid off. Creator Dan Harmon’s admission about “Vindicators 3” — a self-aware parody of superhero team-up films — suggests a willingness to acknowledge misses even within a widely praised season (Rick and Morty Wiki).

Summary

Rick and Morty Season 3 remains a benchmark for what the series can accomplish: ten episodes that ranged from meta-prison breaks to emotional bottle episodes to a fully animated Citadel society. The surprise April Fools premiere set a tone for unpredictability that carried through the season, and the quality of episodes like “Pickle Rick” and “The Ricklantis Mixup” cemented Season 3’s reputation in fan discourse. For viewers who never caught it during its original run or want to revisit it, Disney+ provides the most accessible path to all ten episodes today.

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Season 3’s surprise premiere and Pickle Rick episode built hype that carried into Rick and Morty Season 8, bringing ten new episodes of interdimensional chaos in 2025.

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